COAL SECRETARY AND JHARKHAND CHIEF SECRETARY

Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar ordered framing of charges against the accused, including senior public servants K S Kropha and K C Samria, and fixed December 22 for formally framing charges against them.

"What has happened in the past two years is there is a phenomenal growth in supply of coal so much so that I have virtually become redundant. That is how we should be. The ministry also seems to have come redundant."

US President-elect Donald J Trump said said he had chosen James N Mattis, a hard-charging retired general who led a Marine division to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, to serve as his secretary of defence. Trump made the announcement at a rally in Cincinnati, calling General Mattis "the closest thing we have to Gen George Patton."

The retired four-star general, known as "Mad Dog," commanded a Marine battalion during the First Gulf War and a Marine division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2010, he was named to head the US Central Command.